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[Wh1tefang12]

What needs to be done for accessibly is for someone to make a program which using to look key tell you what your looking at, i.e your looking at grass the game says grass, you look at Native Copper it says Native copper and so on, honestly that in it self wouldn't be to hard to make but alas i know nothing about using Dfhack and what not, and programming in general to do that, but im sure there are people who would gladly help if they found this

[zkline]

Hi All,
Thanks for the DFTerm public server info.  Sadly, I'm not running Linux any more, but rather OS X.  Can anybody give me the Telnet information to connect to the server directly?  That would be easiest, I think.
As regards programming and such, I do hope some of you tech-savvy types are reading.  I know a bit, but not that much.
Best,
Zack.

[tolkafox]

What you need is a friend to help you play DF while you wait for the new interface.

DF Co-op is the bomb.

[zkline]

Co-op is a great idea in principle, but the only friend I have who plays DF tried it with me once and was overwhelmed by the amount of data.  It's different when you're looking it over on your own, but trying to convey that to someone else when they can't process it themselves is taxing, I guess.  I can understand the frustration, even if I wish it weren't there.

[peskyninja]

You're so cool I almost want to gouge out my eyes so i can be as cool as you. 

Zack you're awsome!
I wish I could help you, but I don't understand alot about programing and this stuff I'm just the basic type of "computer guy".

[peskyninja]

This thread deserve to be read by The Great Toad himself and The Brave Three-toe.
Gosh, this thread is almost an real time chat!

[zkline]

It's funny, it almost is.  It helps that I have nothing better to do just now than read this forum and hope for responses.  I wish I had more concrete suggestions to give as to how an improved interface might be arranged, but I've only toyed with DF for a very short time myself.  Nevertheless, the groundswell of encouragement and support is much appreciated.
Best,
Zack.

[Armok]

We're approaching this the entirely wrong way. Instead of trying to communicate in a speech-like way, a system that communicates the same data a seeing player gets at about the same bandwidth should be employed. Of course, you'll have to use tricky signal processing and the end result with probably sound like white noise to the concious mind, but with a bit of cleverness and knowledge of how the brain processes sound it should be possible.

[Jurph]

Zack, I think the DF community is going to love this challenge.  I recommend two parallel approaches:

First, I think we should solicit your input in configuring DF for your maximum utility.  I don't know how well you know the game, but with a little editing we can make the game far more accessible:

• Turn off intro movie and background music
• Edit the DF Color Scheme to use the simplest HTML Names so your keyboard color shortcut will be more likely to correctly identify the color
• Force DF into the simplest possible text display mode
• Trim the accents from Dwarven language so that a reader program will be able to at least attempt a correct pronunciation

Secondly, do you have any haptic interfaces we should know about, like perhaps a Braille monitor?  Since DF is an 80-column display by default, there are probably a lot of older serial devices for the blind that could also be configured to take DFTerm input with some work.  DFHack also works very well now, and could probably generate useful state data about the game.  A few things that might be useful to display to an 80-column display could be the jobs list, announcements, the name of the menu that's currently being displayed on the right hand side.  I don't know much about DFHack, but given all of the other things it can do, I suspect it can probably generate state data in a format that would be useful to you.

I'm thinking a combination of simplifying the GUI and directing the most useful atoms of information to your preferred interfaces will make the game nearly playable!

[zkline]

Hi,
Excellent ideas.  I'll get behind the configuration changes to DF, though the color and text mode are probably most important. 
I'm afraid I have to disappoint you with regard to a Braille display.  I do have one, 18 columns wide, and it already cost me $1,300+.  Larger ones exist, but they are even more expensive and uniformly single-line.  Multiline models are not really practical yet, as far as I know.  Speech and sound will have to be the primary output, I'm afraid, not least because the display I have is proprietary and I know nothing about how it actually works.
Thanks for the support and suggestions.  It's much appreciated.  I can see the community embracing the challenge already.
Best,
Zack.

[Catastrophic lolcats]

Acutally you can ignore my post. I missed the part you said about Braille Displays, sorry.

First off Zack, you're pretty amazing to set yourself a challenge like this.

Now. I'm not sure if this is a terrible suggestion, since this a field I've had no experience in, but would something like a Braille Computer Monitor help the blind to play Dwarf Fortress at all?

They're not very cheap and I've heard they can be a hassle to get working put it could allow for some feedback. It would be much, much slower and I imagine you would have to pause and unpause it a lot so you can update your mind map with touch.

Theres also the issue with charactors in Dwarf Fortress to be used for multiple things which means you'd have to take the time to pause out and inspect the item so you know what you're looking at.

Perhaps if you combine this with soundsense and the print mode being read out it could give you a much better idea of what's going on.

[Lancezh]

Co-op is a great idea in principle, but the only friend I have who plays DF tried it with me once and was overwhelmed by the amount of data.  It's different when you're looking it over on your own, but trying to convey that to someone else when they can't process it themselves is taxing, I guess.  I can understand the frustration, even if I wish it weren't there.

Fuck that what keeps you off from playing the game with someone from here ?  I could think of a couple of people who would be up for the challenge ? Or is there something i miss ?

[zkline]

Nothing in principle keeps me from playing with someone from here, actually.  I'm willing if they are.

[Lancezh]

I'm by no means a good player compared to the other DF junkies here, but when i'm back from holidays and noone else volunteerd then we could give it a go, if you tell me what i have to do on my end...

[zkline]

Thanks for the offer.  I'm not sure exactly what all I'd ask you to do, but essentially describe what's going on in sufficient detail for me to make reasonable decisions is a good start.  Of course, I hope to render play with sighted partners unnecessary…
Best,
Zack.